


Catch My Heart

by Prozaco



Category: VA-11 Hall-A (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fluff, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:39:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26337340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prozaco/pseuds/Prozaco
Summary: There was a brief silence between them, ending with Dana knocking against the table with her empty glass, couldn't help but speak, "Aren't you going to ask me why it's red?""Why aren't you the White Comet?" Jill looked askance at her, "I don't know if your opponent can see it in the arena, but I can, your eyes are red."She leaned closer to the tip of the gladiator's nose, her beautiful deep red eyes were just a heartbeat away from her, and the white lashes fluttered rapidly, titillating her."...and they're beautiful on you, Red Comet."
Relationships: Jill Stingray/Dana Zane
Kudos: 23





	Catch My Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Catch My Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25480312) by [Kaiyou_kun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiyou_kun/pseuds/Kaiyou_kun). 



> The original author is unable to log in to AO3 for a while, I managed to contact her on Lofter(through my friend Yik) and got her permission to translate this work.  
> Kudos to Kaiyou_kun!

If you've been working in a bar of the underground arena, you could spot some patterns - for example, the organizers would always schedule the strongest players to take the stage at the end of the night, and make a grand finale, fir up the crowd and bringing a vulgar but perfect night to a violent close. And then - and then the arena would close, and the over-energetic punks would crowd around the winner of the night and storm the bar in disarray, laughing loudly, smashing bottles, and making dirty jokes with their arms around the Lilim hooker's silicone waist.

...and it was nearly midnight, so Jill had to reluctantly get up from her position under the bar and pull a face as she performed her bartender's duties. In fact, the floor at her feet behind the bar was littered with a mountain of beer crates every night, and most of the time she just kept handing these crazy drunks their bottles, waiting for the sound of glass breaking and liquor splashing to die down before pulling out the next one. Other than that, it was chatting with her customers, declining certain drunken invitations to spend the night, and then fondling the empty shaker and chilling.

Her cat at home had just been neutered... not sure if he felt well... she really wanted to buy a virtual bonsai for her house... there seemed to be a pop star with a concert at the venue here recently...

"Hi, Miss twin-tail bartender."

With a slightly frivolous voice, a cyborg hand suddenly appeared on the bar and politely knocked on the wooden tabletop. Jill snapped back, sitting up straight with a start, subconsciously feeling for a bottle of beer to deliver into her hand. Halfway through the delivery she got confused and realized that the woman across the bar wasn't reaching for the bottle, but was looking at her with a helpless and amused look on her face.

"Come on, dear Miss, I've called you a bartender, and you're going to get rid of me with just a bottle of beer?"

Jill stopped and looked her customer up and down calmly; a neutral face, short white hair, dark red irises, a cyborg left hand that revealed its metallic grey, and slight scratches on her cheeks didn't prevent her from blushing faintly and her eyes sparkling -- clearly this guy was in the mood for drinking.

"Of course not. It's a pleasure to serve the big winner tonight, Red Comet. Shall I offer this champion a Gut Punch or a Piledriver?"

The woman in front of her was the Red Comet, the latest big hit in the arena, who was known to have fought a bear without a scratch, taken down several well-armed men with her bare hands, and so on. Jill paid little attention to these rumors, she just heard them occasionally in someone’s drink and talk. She had proved herself with real results, at least on the third day that the so-called ace came to this arena, she had already beaten most of the opponents who carried high stakes on them, with no defeats.

And those who lost all their money and came to pick a fight over grievances were all put down by her with broken wrist bones in the bar, the cracking of bones sounding thrilling. Which, of course, didn't mean that Jill hadn't learned anything about this resounding name before, she...

"Hey, no need for the pretentious bitter drink, just give me a beer."

The first reaction of the Miss Bartender was to mentally roll her eyes at the ace gladiator, then she handed over the bottle she still held in her hand. What a good icebreaker. However, the Red Comet still didn't take it, instead of pointing to the shaker in her hand, "If I remember correctly, your duties here are more than handing people bottles, aren't they."

"...Well, at your service, Lady Comet."

She wanted a Beer, know-it-all. Jill sighed and finally let go of the bottle in her hand, got the shaker opened, and neatly filling it with ingredients. It was almost time for closing, and the drunks around were either gone or sleeping on the dirty floor, making deafening grunts.

The Red Comet sat alone at the bar, watching with interest as she fiddled with the bottles and jars, her dark red eyes twinkling in the dim light that was deliberately created, and Jill glanced up and away uncontrollably and quickly as if electrocuted. She was never good at this.

"Don't be so rusty, just call me Dana. And the drink...I don't believe I've ordered any drinks that need mixing." 

"Uh, okay, Dana...oh god..."

Jill realized to her horror that it had been shaken too much, and when she opened the shaker it contained nothing more than a frothy, unidentified mixture that did not have the clear, attractive color of the beer. She poured out the scrapped ingredients and set about mixing a new brew, cursing her absent-mindedness today. The gladiator didn't mind though, idly tapping the bar to the music of the jukebox and chatting with or without a conversation.

"What do I call you, bartender?"

"Just call me Jill. Here, have your Beer."

Dana took the glass, licking the rich foam that swirled over the top, and giggled, "Jill, has anyone ever told you the way you address people is like a schoolgirl calling a mistress?"

Jill shrugged noncommittally and buried herself in cleaning the glass, "Has anyone ever told you that you're pretty good at talking?"

"There. That's why I like to talk to people." Dana was still staring at her with reckless abandon, her dark red eyes narrowed tipsily, the right forearm resting on her chin had a tight, muscular line without sacrificing its softness and symmetry, and golden drops of wine hung from her pale lips. Jill peeked up, unconsciously swallowing.

"Jill, you're cute."

"Come on, Ace. Nobody's going to pay for a cute bartender, especially not in an underground arena bar like this." Jill gathered up the jars and spread her hands to shrug at Dana, "Everyone thinks I should put on heavy makeup and sit on the tables flirting with everyone while wearing a third of the fabric of this outfit, even myself. Assuming, of course, that I have twice the bust sized I do now."

"I don't think flat chests and two-ponytails don't have an audience." Dana spun the glass in her hand, the alloy meeting the glass with a crisp strike, "which means no one invited you on a date?"

In fact, there is. And there is every night, and it hadn't stopped since I've been here over a year. But I'll turn them down one by one, and if you say one more word, you'll be the one who maintains the record tonight, but-

"Nope. Maybe the new ace gladiator would be interested? After all, you don't often hear the word ‘cute’ in a bar." She almost bit her tongue when she said it, and she regretted it as soon as it was out of her mouth. Jill could already imagine how Fore was going to mock her when she got home, and if she was going to bury her head under the bar like an ostrich on the spot now, those snarky comments would have to be at least tripled.

Thankfully Dana didn't seem to take it seriously, she was still sipping her drink and the grin on her face hadn't waned, thank God. Jill tried in vain to change the subject, "Why do they call you Red Comet?"

Dana shook the nearly bottomed glass slowly, a smile appearing on her face, "Because they could see my moves, but they didn't have a chance to parry and ended up being defeated by me."

Jill nodded, but Dana didn't say anything further. There was a brief silence between them, ending with Dana knocking against the table with her empty glass, couldn't help but speak, "Aren't you going to ask me why it's red?"

"Why aren't you the White Comet?" Jill looked askance at her, "I don't know if your opponent can see it in the arena, but I can, and your eyes are red."

She hauntedly leaned closer to the tip of the gladiator's nose, her beautiful deep red eyes were just a heartbeat away from her, and the white lashes fluttered rapidly, titillating her.

"...and they're beautiful on you, Red Comet."

Dana's eyes stared right back at her, tapping her metal fingers against the bar as the other hand slowly climbed up to Jill's cheek.

"Bartender," she lowered her voice, sounding displeased, "why are you the first one to extend an invitation and make a sweet talk when I'm the one who hit on you in the first place?"

Jill looked like she wanted to say something more, but Lady Gladiator didn't give her the chance. She didn't hesitate for a moment to seize the last chance to gain the upper hand and lean forward to shut the tiny lips of the bartender.

* * *

"So, Miss Bartender, the unsympathetic one. Can you explain to me why you've got a poster of me on your bedroom wall, yet you've been so cold to me when I accosted you?"

As they were about to take the final step, Dana raised an eyebrow and protested against the cold response at the bar as she pinned the dark-haired bartender to the bed in Jill's messy, cramped apartment. Jill explained it by stretching under her partner's hands, wrapping her fine pale arms loosely around the gladiator's neck, and whispering into her ear.

"How can I make you think I'm such an easy bartender when a little fan is about to get into bed with her idol?" Jill dropped her eyes and licked Dana's earlobe like a kitten, "Besides, this is the first time I've had a one-night thing in over a year, and I've put up with it for a while, so don't be a disappointment, Ace."

* * *

Later that night, Lady Gladiator showed Jill that she's more than "not a disappointment".

The bartender, who barely had the strength to smoke afterward, was forced to pull up her pillow and admit she regretted saying that.

The next day, Jill, who usually wakes up at ten AM, laid in bed with a hangover until high noon, and when she got up, she found that her one-night partner had disappeared without a trace, and left a note by her pillow.

"Thanks for the hospitality, see you at the bar tonight and make sure to come to see me in action :D"

The pouting bartender didn't go to the game, holding her back and standing in the bar until the wee hours of the morning. When the last round was over, her white-haired gladiator was unsurprisingly crowded into the bar. Amidst the excited roars of the spectators and the countless raised glasses, the winner of the night laughed and walked towards the bar of the corner, popping up onto the counter with one hand on the wooden tabletop to give the bartender a loud kiss. Then the bar was buzzing with nasty whistles and coarse laughter, as Dana announced to everyone within three seconds with her actions, that she owned this little black cat at the bar.

The little black cat buried her head in the arms of her new girlfriend, her cheek squeezing against the soft chest through her clothes, feeling her head about to steam up.

* * *

Then one day the gladiator collapsed at home from her monthly minor inconveniences, grunting for a hug from her girlfriend instead of returning to the arena. Jill cruelly tucked Dana into the kotatsu, put away the beer in her bedroom, slipped a cat into her arms, and left for work with a full jug of hot water in her reach.

It's the middle of winter, the streets of Glitch City were piled high with dirty gray snow, the underground arena was missing its bright red comet, and the bar was sparsely patronized. Jill walked out the back door of the closed bar just in time to receive a call from Dana.

She yelled out hungrily, asked Jill to bring her buffalo wings. Jill, accustomed to this, skillfully refused into the microphone while wearing a scarf: "You want to take painkillers again after eating spicy food while having painful periods?"

Dana began to play pathetic on the phone, she whispered her plea, mixing it with her loving words to her. Who would have thought that the ace gladiator would be so sweet and silly on the phone with her girl, and even threaten to roast Fore on the stove?

Jill was not sure whether to be angry or laugh, but she caught the line "I liked you from the first glance, and I had to eat buffalo wings to gain the energy to go on kissing you and playing games to earn money to support you", and replied unceremoniously: "For someone who confesses at first glance, I'm afraid you'll be in bed with the buffalo wings tonight. "

But there was an unexpected moment of silence on the other end of the line. A rustling of rolling over in the kotatsu came over the receiver, and Dana breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, "We slept together on my third day in this arena, didn't we?"

"Yeah, so?"

"I did fall in love with you the first time I saw you, and that was on the first night I won the game. I was wondering why a bar of an underground arena would have a skinny barkeep with her uniforms buttoned to the top one. Turns out you're actually a bartender, and it's so cute when a customer comes in to order a cocktail and your eyes light up when you get to make the drink.

Then I spent the first day falling in love with you, the second day finding out about your sexual orientation, if you're single, what time you commute to and from work, where you live, what kind of drinks you like, and the third day trying my best to win the game without any injuries and get you into bed in the best shape of my life."

Dana spoke with a smile, "Turns out you're actually a fan of mine, so sad, I thought I could catch up with you all because I'm such a great pickup artist."

Jill leaned against the wall and listened in silence, her mouth opened and closed, a small mist of water-dense in front of her nose, and eventually, she didn't know what to say, so she slapped a frozen hand on her hot cheek.

"Why are you quiet? Are you touched?"

"You're an asshole," Jill whispered over the microphone, her voice muffled, "You have a much shorter crush than me, I don't care. If you still want buffalo wings, shut up and wait for me to get home, only half of those will be packed for you, no more."

"Jill you are the sweetest, kindest girlfriend in all of GC and I love you to death. Look, Fore is moved to tears because I'm not gonna roast him."

"Slick talker." Jill trailed off, her thumb hovering over the end key long enough to add hesitantly, "...and I love you too."

She hung up the phone as fast as she could, not pausing for half a second.


End file.
